Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning at each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting machines. Shrewd operators consequently strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines, features, and enhancements available because such machines attract frequent play and hence increase profitability to the operator. Therefore, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to continuously develop new games and improved gaming enhancements that will attract frequent play through enhanced entertainment value to the player.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is the concept of a “secondary” or “bonus” game that may be played in conjunction with a “basic” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the basic game, which is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome in the basic game. Generally, bonus games provide a greater expectation of winning than the basic game and may also be accompanied with more attractive or unusual video displays and/or audio. Bonus games may additionally award players with “progressive jackpot” awards that are funded, at least in part, by a percentage of coin-in from the gaming machine or a plurality of participating gaming machines. Because the bonus game concept offers tremendous advantages in player appeal and excitement relative to other known games, and because such games are attractive to both players and operators, there is a continuing need to develop gaming machines with new types of bonus games to satisfy the demands of players and operators.
Contrary to the above-noted commercial need for enhancing available games and wagering machines to attract frequent play and increase profitability to the operator, a countervailing interest is in promoting responsible wagering game play. In response to recent regulations in New Zealand, gaming machines are being configured to display pop-up windows, or the like, after half an hour of play informing the player of the duration of the player's session of play, the amount that the player has spend during such session, and the player's net wins and losses during such session, and further asking the player if he or she wants to continue.
In some jurisdictions, the local governments have taken cursory steps to promote responsible gaming including, but not limited to, 800 line help, advertising restrictions, alcohol service restrictions, credit restrictions, employee training, employee P.G. prevention, loss limit limited stakes, restrictions on marketing/direct mail, posters, signage, public awareness, self-exclusion, and treatment funding (e.g., by wagering proceeds). General restrictions and limitations on the placement of bets and amounts of bets, as well as the passive requirement to prominently display the odds of the game, for example, serve to indirectly provide a measure of responsible gaming.
However, despite the aforementioned efforts to promote responsible gaming, a need exists for more profound methods, systems, and devices for promoting responsible gaming and finding a socially responsible balance, at an individual level, between profitability to the gaming establishment and entertainment for the player.